French Open
Paris, June 1: World No.1 tennis player Novak Djokovic of Serbia entered the quarter-finals of the French Open after defeating Spain’s Roberto Bautista 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 in three hours and 12 minutes here on Wednesday.
The match was stopped mid-way due to rain on Tuesday, after which Djokovic returned to impress and finish the match with a victory, reports Efe.
This is Djokovic’s 10th presence in quarter-finals of the French Open, in which he will play against the winner of the match between Czech Tomas Berdych and Spanish David Ferrer.
Djokovic hits $100m jackpot
World number one Novak Djokovic became the first player to reach the $100 million prize money mark when he reached the French Open quarter-finals for the 10th time Wednesday.
The 29-year-old Serb started the tournament with $99,673,404 in the bank and the 294,000 euros ($328,303) he earned by beating Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 7-5 took him past the landmark figure.
Top seed Djokovic, seeking a first French Open title to complete a career Grand Slam, will take on either Czech seventh seed Tomas Berdych or Spanish 11th seed David Ferrer for a place in the semi-finals.Bopanna-Mergea knocked out of men’s doubles
India’s tennis star Rohan Bopanna and his men’s doubles partner Florin Mergea were knocked out in the quarters-finals of the French Open tennis tournament here on Wednesday.
Third seeded pair of Croatia’s Ivan Dodig and Brazil’s Marcelo Melo defeated the Indo-Romanian sixth seeded pair 6-4, 6-4 in one hour 15 minutes to progress to the semi-finals.
The match began on positive note for both sides as they won their respective games to make it 3-3. But Dodig-Melo broke their opponents’ serve at a crucial juncture of the set to grab the advantage.
The third seed made the best use of the advantage to win all their serves thereafter to claim the first set 6-4.
In the second set, the Croatian and Brazilian dominated the proceedings as they broke Bopanna-Mergea yet again to seize the initiative and went on to win the set 6-4 and the match.
Serena marches into quarter-finals
Defending champion Serena Williams fired out a warning shot to her French Open competitors, swatting aside Elina Svitolina in straight sets 6-1, 6-1 here on Wednesday.
The players had originally been due on court on Monday afternoon, only for the Paris weather to intervene.
When they did finally make it onto the Philippe Chatrier court, Serena was clearly intent on making up for lost time, reeling off the first four games in the blink of an eye against the hapless Ukrainian.
Svitolina did eventually get on the scoreboard but was unable to stem the tide for long, dropping the first set in under half an hour.
The second set was almost as brief, the American wrapped up victory to book a quarter-final meeting with Yulia Putintseva or Carla Suarez Navarro.
Paes, Bopanna ousted in men’s doubles; Sania advances
Indian stars Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna were knocked out with their partners in the quarter-finals of the men’s doubles while Sania Mirza cruised in the mixed doubles quarters of the French Open tennis tournament here on Wednesday.
The third-seeded pair of Croatia’s Ivan Dodig and Brazil’s Marcelo Melo defeated sixth seeds Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea 6-4, 6-4 in an hour and 15 minutes to progress to the semi-finals of the tournament.
The fifth seeded American pair of Bob Bryan and his brother Mike outclassed the 16th seeded Paes and his Polish partner Marcin Matkowski 7-6 (12), 6-3 in one hour and 39 minutes in the quarters to enter the last four stage.
The second seeded Sania and her mixed doubles partner Ivan Dodig of Croatia defeated the French pair of Alize Cornet and Jonathan Eysseric 6-7 (6), 6-4, 10-8 in one hour and 40 minutes in the second round to enter the quarter-finals in style.
